The Hymns of Prudentius Part 20

See also Ambrose, _Hexaem._, v. 24, for an eloquent pa.s.sage in the same strain. The c.o.c.k was the familiar Christian symbol of early rising or vigilance, and numerous representations of it are found in the Catacombs. Cf. the painting from the Catacomb of St. Priscilla reproduced in Bottari's folio of 1754, where the Good Shepherd is depicted as feeding the lambs, with a crowing c.o.c.k on His right and left hand. It is also a symbol of the Resurrection, our Lord being supposed to have risen from the grave at the early c.o.c.kcrowing: see l. 65 _et seq._ In l. 16 the first bird-notes are interpreted by the poet as a summons to the general judgment. Cf. Mark xiii. 35: "Ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or _at c.o.c.kcrowing_, or in the morning." This pa.s.sage serves as a kind of text for Prudentius' first two hymns, and perhaps explains why he has one for c.o.c.kcrowing and another for morning.

26 A common idea in all literatures. Cf. Virg., _Aen._, vi. 278 (taken from Homer), _tum consanguineus Leti Sopor_, and Tennyson's "Sleep, Death's twin-brother" (_In Memoriam_, 68).

44 Cf. Augustine, _Serm._ 103: "These evil spirits seek to seduce the soul: but when the sun has arisen, they take to flight."

59 The denial of Peter forms a subject of Christian casuistry in patristic literature, and this pa.s.sage recalls the famous cla.s.sical parallel in Euripides (_Hipp._ 612), "the tongue hath sworn: yet unsworn is the heart." Cf. Augustine, _cont. mendacium_: "In that denial he held fast the truth in his heart, while with his lips he uttered falsehood." For a striking representation of Peter and the c.o.c.k, on a sarcophagus discovered in the Catacombs and now deposited in the Vatican library, see Maitland's _Church in the Catacombs_, p. 347. The closing words of the pa.s.sage in Ambrose's _Hexaemeron_, already referred to under l. 2, may here be quoted: "As the c.o.c.k peals forth his notes, the robber leaves his plots: Lucifer himself awakes and lights up the sky: the distressful sailor lays aside his gloom, and all the storms and tempests that have risen in fury under the winds of the evening begin to die down: the soul of the saint leaps to prayer and renews the study of the written word: and finally, the very Rock of the Church is cleansed of the stain he had contracted by his denials before the c.o.c.k crew."

81 ff. The best commentary on these words is to be found in the following pa.s.sage from the second epistle of Basil to Gregory n.a.z.ianzen: "What can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the angelic host by giving oneself at the peep of dawn to prayer and by turning at sunrise to work with hymns and songs: yea, all the day through to make prayer the accompaniment of our toils and to season them with praise as with salt? For the solace of hymns changes the soul's sadness into mirth."

II

1 This poem furnishes two hymns to the Roman Breviary, one to be sung on Wednesday at Lauds, and consisting of ll. 1-8, 48-53 (omitting l.

50), 57, 59, 60, 67 (_tu vera lux caelestium_) and 68: the other for Thursday at Lauds, consisting of ll. 25 (_lux ecce surgit aurea_), 93-108.

17 Cf. Ambrose, ii. 8, _de Cain et Abel_: "The thief shuns the day as the witness of his crime: the adulterer is abashed by the dawn as the accomplice of his adultery."

51 The practice of praying on bended knees is frequently referred to in early Christian writers. Cf. Clem., 1 Ad. Cor. cc. xlviii.: "Let us fall down before the Lord," and Shepherd of Hermas, vis. 1. i.: "After I had crossed that river I came unto the banks and there knelt down and began to pray." Dressel quotes from Juvencus (iv.

648), a Spanish poet and Christian contemporary of Prudentius, _genibus nixi regem dominumque salutant_, "on bended knees they make obeisance unto their King and Lord."

63 The Jordan is a poetical figure for baptism, suggested doubtless by the baptism of our Lord in that river. Cf. vii. 73-75.

67 Cf. Milton, _Paradise Regained_, i. 293: "So spake our Morning Star, then in his rise." The figure is suggested by Rev. xxii. 16: "I am ... the bright, the morning star."

105 The conception of G.o.d as _speculator_ may be paralleled by a pa.s.sage in the epistle of Polycarp _ad Philipp._ iv., where G.o.d is described as the Arch-critic (_panta momoschopeitai_) and subsequently (vii.) as _ton pantepopten theon_, "the All-witnessing G.o.d." The last verse contains a distinct echo of the closing words of the fourth chapter of Polycarp: "None of the reasonings or thoughts, nor any of the hidden things of the heart escape His notice."

III

2 _Word-begot._ The original _verbigena_, on the a.n.a.logy of such words (cf. _terrigena_, _Martigena_, etc.), can only mean "begotten of the Word." It is evident, therefore, the "Word" in this connection is not the Johannine Logos or Second Person in the Trinity.

Prudentius cannot be guilty of the error which he expressly condemns (_Apoth._ 249) as _perquam ridiculum_ and regard the Logos as begetting Himself. Consequently, both in this pa.s.sage and in xi. 18 (_verbo editus_) the "Word" must be taken as approximating rather to the Alexandrian conception of the Logos as the Divine Reason. In this way Christ is expressly described as the offspring of the _Intellectus Dei_, the immanent Intelligence of the Deity.

If this conception is considered to be beyond Prudentius, we can only suppose that both here and in xi. 18, his language is theologically loose. Some excuse may be offered for this on the ground that the Latin language is ill-adapted for expressing metaphysical truths.

The late Bishop Westcott remarked on the inadequacy of the Latin original of "the Word was made flesh" (_verb.u.m caro factum est_), both substantive and verb falling short of the richness of their Greek equivalents. (_Vid._ also note on iv. 15.)

11 Cf. Ambrose, _Hymn_ vii.:--

_"Christusque n.o.bis sit cibus Potusque noster sit fides; Laeti bibamus sobriam Ebrietatem Spiritus."_

_Translation._

"May Christ be now the Bread we eat, Be simple Faith our potion sweet: Let our intoxication be The Spirit's calm sobriety."

The idea is familiar to readers of Herbert and Herrick, though it is elaborated by them with quaint conceits somewhat foreign to the Latin poet. Cf. Herbert, _The Banquet_:--

"O what sweetnesse from the bowl Fills my soul!

Is some starre (fled from the sphere) Melted there, As we sugar melt in wine?

Doubtless neither starre nor flower Hath the power Such a sweetnesse to impart: Only G.o.d, Who gives perfumes, Flesh a.s.sumes, And with it perfumed my heart."

Also Herrick, _A Thanksgiving to G.o.d_:--

"Lord, I confess too, when I dine, The pulse is thine.

'Tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth With guiltless mirth, And giv'st me wa.s.sail bowls to drink, Spiced to the brink."

28 The original _dactylico_ refers to the metre of the Latin of this poem. For a rendering of ll. 1-65 in the metre of the original see Glover, _Life and Letters in the Fourth Century_, pp. 267-269.

58 This and the following lines should satisfy the most ardent vegetarian who seeks to uphold his abstinence from animal food by the customs of the early Church. In Christian circles, however, the abstinence was practised on personal and spiritual grounds, _e.g._, Jerome (_de Regul. Monach._, xi.) says, "The eating of flesh is the seed-plot of l.u.s.t" (_seminarium libidinis_): so also Augustine (_de moribus Ecc. Cath._, i. 33), who supports what doubtless was the view of Prudentius, namely that the avoidance of animal flesh was a safe-guard but not a binding Christian duty.

75 _Unwed._ Prudentius thus adopts the view of the ancient world on the question of the generation of bees. Cf. Virgil, _Geo._ iv. 198, and Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, xi. 16. Dryden's translation of Virgil (_l.c._) is as follows:--

"But (what's more strange) their modest appet.i.tes, Averse from Venus, fly the nuptial rights; No l.u.s.t enervates their heroic mind, Nor wastes their strength on wanton womankind, But in their mouths reside their genial powers, They gather children from the leaves and flowers."

86 Cf. Ps. liv. 18, 19 (Vulg.): _Vespere et mane et meridie narrabo et annuntiabo et exaudiet vocem meam._ "In the evening and morning and at noonday will I pray, and that instantly and he shall hear my voice" (P. B. Version).

127 This is, strictly speaking, an error: it is the woman's seed which is to bruise the serpent's head. The error was perpetuated in the Latin Church by the Vulgate of Gen. iii. 15, _ipsa conteret caput tuum_, where _ipsa_ refers to the woman (= she herself).

157 The epithet "white-robed" refers to the newly-baptized converts who received the white robe as a symbol of their new nature. Cf.

_Perist._ i. 67: _Christus illic candidatis praesidet cohortibus_, and Ambrose (_de Mysteriis_, vii.): "Thou didst receive (that is, after baptism) white garments as a sign that thou hast doffed the covering of thy sins and put on the chaste raiment (_velamina_) of innocence, whereof the prophet spake (Ps. li. 7), 'Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow'" (Vulg.).

199 Phlegethon (rendered "h.e.l.l"), one of the rivers of the Virgilian Hades, is used to express the abode of the lost. Cf. Milton, _P. L._, ii. 580:--

"... fierce Phlegethon, Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage."

The subject of the _descensus ad inferos_ was evidently a favourite one with Prudentius and his contemporaries. It has been suggested that apart from the scriptural basis of this conception Prudentius was influenced by the so-called _Gospel of Nicodemus_, which embodies two books, the _Acts of Pilate_ and the _Descent into h.e.l.l_. The latter is a.s.signed by several critics to 400 or thereabouts, and gives a graphic account of Christ's doings in Hades. Synesius deals with the subject in one of his hymns (ix.), and Mrs Browning's translation (see the essay on _The Greek Christian Poets_) of a pa.s.sage in that poem may be quoted:--

"Down Thou earnest, low as earth, Bound to those of mortal birth; Down Thou earnest, low as h.e.l.l, Where Shepherd-Death did tend and keep A thousand nations like to sheep, While weak with age old Hades fell Shivering through his dark to view Thee.

So, redeeming from their pain Chains of disembodied ones, Thou didst lead whom thou didst gather Upward in ascent again, With a great hymn to the Father, Upward to the pure white thrones!"

For a modern treatment of the theme see _Christ in Hades_, by Stephen Phillips.

202 The words suggest the Catacombs, and perhaps refer to the custom of placing in the tomb a small cup or vase containing spices, of which myrrh (a symbol of death, according to Gregory of Nyssa, cf.

xii. 71) was most usually employed. Or the allusion may be to the practice of embalming. (See note on x. 51.) The body was placed not only in an actual sarcophagus or stone coffin, as expressly mentioned in the text, but in hollow places cut out of rock or earth (_loculus_). The _sarcophagus_ method seems to have been the earlier, but was superseded by that of the _loculus_, except in the case of the very wealthy.

205 The concluding line is beautifully ill.u.s.trated by the epitaph on the martyr Alexander, found over one of the graves in the cemetery of Callixtus in the Catacombs:--

ALEXANDER MORTVVS NON EST SED VIVIT SVPER ASTRA ET CORPVS IN HOC TVMVLO QVIESCIT ...